Qualitative Methods in Music Psychology Research: Musical identities & Music Health and Wellbeing

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Raymond MacDonald Glasgow Caledonian University

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Why Music ? •Music is ubiquitous •Music is emotional •Music is engaging •Music is distracting •Music is physical •Music is ambiguous •Music is social •Music is communicative •Music is physiological •Music affects behaviour •Plays a key role in identity

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What are Musical Identities?(MacDonald, Hargreaves and Miell, 2002) Identity is a key issue for contemporary life •Social, family and work roles more fluid ubiquitous emotional

•Losing the traditional, individualization and reflexive modernization (Beck 2009)

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•Exponential increase in identity research which take places in many academic disciplines

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•The most puzzling puzzle with which psychology has to deal (William James, 1890)

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William James (1890) The principles of psychology our self-feeling… is determined by the ratio of our actualities to our supposed potentialities, a fraction of which are the denominator and the numerator our success: thus, Self-esteem = Success / Pretensions

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‘….to give up pretensions is as blessed a relief as to get them gratified….Many Bostonians (and inhabitants of other cities too, I fear), would be happier women and men today, if they could once for all abandon the notion of keeping up a Musical Self, and without shame let people hear them call a symphony a nuisance’

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What are Musical Identities? (MacDonald, Hargreaves and Miell, 2002) Identities in Music Individuals who are involved in musical participation develop personal identities that are intrinsically musical.

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composer, guitarist, cellist, pub singer, tone deaf, folkie, jazzer, i only sing in the bath

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socially constructed labels

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Music in Identities

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Musical taste, music as a resource used in negotiating identities Everyday Uses

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Musical Identities Influenced by both musical and non musical factors •The family (Borthwick and Davidson, 2002) •The school (Lamont, 2002)

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•Motivation intrinsic vrs extrinsic (Amabile, 1996; O'Neill 1997)

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•Musical development (Hargreaves 1986)

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•Self efficacy (Bandura, 1986)

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The process of musical communication influences the construction of musical identities

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Pluralistic models of music perception, identities and communication (Hargreaves, MacDonald and Miell, 2005) •Subjective aspects of musical perception •talk about music can be seen as integral to musical communication.

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•talking about music is an important part of the musical communication process.

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•The social constructionist view of communication

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•participants’ talk about their involvement in musical activities (including listening) help construct and maintain particular musical identities. The accounts function to create, maintain and negotiate identities, rather than reflect any objective truth

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Talking about Music

(Miell, MacDonald and Wilson 2005)

•Talking about music influences both music making and music listening •Identity as a musician is worked up by claims of what ‘you’ would do in this identity

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•Discourse not only functions to fulfil identity needs for the participants but also helps to shape the participants’ experiences of music itself

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•Talking about music is a crucially important aspect of the overall process of musical identity development and communication •musical identities can be conceptualized as multifaceted and constantly evolving and to a certain extent contextually dependant

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Musical communication

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Hargreaves, MacDonald and Miell, 2005 Everyday Uses

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Signalling membership of musical communities (Miell and MacDonald, 2006) Both young people & jazz musicians signal attachment to a musical community ubiquitous

most musicians tend to like the same sort of thing, for example everyone at the Academy who I know likes Jamiroquai, but a lot of people who don’t play instruments don’t – it’s probably because of some of the musical aspects of their music – it’s got quite a lot of depth to it - a lot of the chords might sound a little weird to people…a lot of their music is really complicated’. (young person)

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Signalling memberships of musical communities Both young people & jazz musicians signal attachment to a musical community

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Most of the people I hang around with or meet occasionally are, if not players, people who like the music. That’s my circle because that’s where I move. (jazz musician)

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In groups and out groups In talk, they define their community in relation to an out group … you’ve got people on the Grappelli… the Grappelli thing and play all the sort of different licks and.... Hang around with people with all the same model guitar you know. So it’s kind of really boxed in and kind of I think I’ve got a different sound to that. Because I try and do sort of straight-ahead, jazzy-type stuff. (jazz musician)

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Musical identities and social interaction •The accounts function to create, maintain and negotiate identities, rather than reflect any objective truth •Identity as a musician is worked up by claims of what ‘you’ would do in this identity ubiquitous

•Similar identity needs for professionals or young people in terms of subcultural membership and musical insight or authority

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•Musicians in both samples articulate conflicting priorities of social groupings and individual qualities to authorise their musical identity

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•Discourse presented here not only functions to fulfil identity needs for the participants but also helps to shape the participants’ experiences of music itself •Talking about music is a crucially important aspect of the overall process of musical communication

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Current conceptions of improvisation

Improvisation is the highest form of art (Daniel Barenboim - BBC Reith lectures 2006

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Current conceptions of improvisation

Improvisation is the highest form of art (Daniel Barenboim - BBC Reith lectures 2006) ubiquitous emotional

Improvisation is a parlour trick; anyone can do it

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Current conceptions of improvisation

Improvisation is the highest form of art (Daniel Barenboim - BBC Reith lectures 2006)

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Improvisation is a parlour trick; anyone can do it (Willie Wonka - Charlie and the Chocolate factory)

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Improvisation & musical identity Previous studies of jazz musicians indicate that: •Identity as a jazz musician is negotiated in a social context e.g. Jazz is - Jazz life is (MacDonald & Wilson, 2005) •Hegemonic influences are apparent in the identity work of individuals describing their practice

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(MacDonald & Wilson, 2006)

•Negotiations involve handling discrete repertoires of mastery and mystery in accounting for improvising (Wilson & MacDonald, 2005)

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Improvisation in contemporary musical practice •Improvisation has emerged as a scene drawing together players with affiliations to very different genres •A non-verbal, simultaneous social creative process

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•Social aspect often overlooked in studies of individuals improvising

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•Tendency to assume that ‘improvising’ has universal meaning or implications

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•If musicians bring diverse identities to improvising together, there should be reasoning within that community when they talk about the activity of improvisation

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Repertoires •are consistent patterns of description in talk •function to invite particular interpretations of things, people, or events

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•do not necessarily represent internally held views, but may be deployed by individuals in particular contexts to particular ends.

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Mastery & mystery in jazz musicians’ talk Repertoire of mastery K

…it’s not always that kind of romantic notion that everybody has, ya know, there has to be some sort of effort. H Yeah it doesn’t magically happen. K There has to be effort and there has to be some degree of training.

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Repertoire of mystery

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Which is another point about improvising, when you’re truly improvising you're playing with this intensity. And yyou don't really care what, mistakes just go by and it's like, doesnae matter cause you're playing with intensity and (.) and passion // and J //Improvising a full solo of intense mistakes.

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Mastery & mystery in jazz musicians’ talk • Both repertoires used • Mastery emphasises achievement, but suggests anyone can do it given time

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• Mystery suggests exclusivity of improvisers, but accords them less agency in what they do

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• Among jazz musicians, accounts of improvising based on mastery were always endorsed, while those based on mystery were always treated ironically

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Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra •How do improvising musicians from diverse musical backgrounds negotiate and maintain identities relating to their shared improvisatory practices? •Rehearse & perform regularly in Glasgow and abroad •Large ensemble of 20+ musicians from jazz, classical, pop & avant-garde backgrounds. •Commitment to free or experimental improvisation.

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Repertoire of mystery …for me it’s about not having the either the learning or the time spent studying this instrument that allows it to be quite a blank canvas… I imagine for some people improvisation is based on a knowledge of what different combinations of notes um chords and scales can be, whereas it’s not for me.

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Repertoire of mystery …that music is abstract, it’s unplanned for, it’s something, maybe it’s more powerful *unclear+ because it can’t be described but yet it, it makes it so deeply we have these these spine tingling moments and it inspires us and gives us energy… …it’s purely by intuition isn’t it? You know for me I think you just react

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…when you’re no longer really thinking about what you’re doing when you’re within it within the music where it’s just (.) you’re just almost being guided by the music you’re not actually acting (.) to me you know that’s the ultimate …improvised music when it works, cause it is stunning it’s absolutely from nowhere …at other points it just seemed to have these magical moments out of it…

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Two data sets: young people in bands jazz/improvising musicians Discourse analysis highlights the importance of repertoires (mastery and mystery)

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Membership of musical communities

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Crucially signaling the importance of social interaction in shaping people’s experiences of music

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Qualitative research and music health and wellbeing Wilson et al

Music Education ubiquitous emotional

Tara French et al

Music Therapy

Everyday uses of music

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Mercedes Pavlicevic

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Community Music

Jane Davidson Gunter Kreutz et al

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What is Health? Health a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (WHO) •The Value of the arts, theatre and music in promoting health and tackling health inequalities at the 20th IUHPE World Conferences on Health Promotion •The Arts and Health Australia •The Society for the Arts in Healthcare (USA) •The Arts and Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice •Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health (UK) •International federation of Arts Councils and culture Agencies: Arts and Health 2010 •ArtFull (in Scotland )

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How is the relationship music and health assessed? Quantitatively: physiological and neurological measures, observation of behaviour, assessment of task performance, self report questionnaires and the use of rating scales.

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Qualitatively: Focus groups, interviews real life interactions, newspaper articles, web based resources.

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The relationships between outcome measures assessed by these various techniques and “music“ are complex and developing causal links is a key challenge for this area of study. Evidence based practice What is evidence

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Qualitative research: Musical identities A qualitative study of the psychological processes involved in music therapy sessions with cancer patients (Pothoulaki, Flowers and MacDonald; in press) ubiquitous

Investigation of music therapy program for patients with cancer.

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Music Therapy

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9 Participants: semi-structured interviews

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Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed

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Why IPA and music? Everyday Uses

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Theme: Free expression-communicating through music A: …it’s not like I was speaking to the person. It’s just that you are getting involved, you know, through the music. It’s not like sitting and trying to make a conversation.

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J: Yes. Well, we can all communicate (.) at the same time (.) by playing an instrument whereas if you are verbally communicating you can not all talk at the same time, whereas we can all play a tune and all be heard at the same time. And then if you hear someone, you can pick up their rhythm and you can join in as well or maybe pick up someone else and join in with them. So, everybody is playing a tune and everybody is communicating and you can pick, (.) you know, certain tunes or sounds (.) or rhythms if you like and join in with the other person.

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Researching the Arts in Scottish Education (RAISE) (Wilson, MacDonald, Byrne, Ewing, and Sheridan; 2008)

Explore the views of teachers on a range of issues relating to the teaching of the arts in primary schools and the first two years of secondary schools.

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Focus groups and Questionnaires: the focus groups informed questionnaire development

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Seven Broad Themes •How the arts are valued

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•Benefits of the arts •Teaching the arts •Curriculum and guidelines •Resources and management •Assessment and accountability •Involving professionals

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Benefits of the arts Growth in self confidence, self-esteem, social and communication skills, emotional intelligence, discernment and being able to articulate individual opinions.

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I say to my children that I can’t think of any job, any university course, any college course where drama will not help you, it will be vital for some things, it will help you in everything. And I also say to them that even if you were never to work in your life, you will still need these skills, you’ll still need to deal with your family, you’ll still need to deal with your friends, you still need to deal with officialdom… Everyday

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Quantitative work Sounds of Progress / Limelight (MacDonald, Miell & Wilson, 2002)

Music Education

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Significant Improvements in: •Musical ability •Communication skills •Self perception of musical ability •joint attention

Community Music

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We are all musical - every human being has a biological & social guarantee of musicianship.

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Experimental and observational research does not shed light upon the subjective thoughts and feelings of participants

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The social model of disability 6 interviews with participants Themes: other people’s expectations; professionalism; responsibility and empowerment

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Theme 1 - Other people’s expectations I remember I used to go up in the ambulance up to the hospital years ago (.) and there was this old woman she was always complaining about her illness (.) we used to call her 57 varieties! (both laugh) She used to always say about me, ‘you know, he’s in a wee world of his own there’ (.) and you’re sitting listening! (both laugh) and you’re sitting listening ‘oh aye, I’m in a wee world of my own here!’ (laughs) (.) but there again, (.) that same old woman, I started a sing-song in the ambulance one time and she started to talk (.) she started to talk to me normally! (laughs) you know what I mean? (both laugh) so there you go *…+ she forgot about the ‘wee world of my own’ when I started the sing-song! *…+ The attitude changed.

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Music Education

Polyphony Gartnavel Royal Hospital (DeSimone and MacDonald, 2010)

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Brian: Polyphony member with mental illness I think the feeling I got after the performance made up for all the nerves and stress I had felt throughout the day. Personally it was a big achievement for me to be in the spotlight like that, in front of so many people – I never really thought I would ever have the confidence to play music in public and I wouldn’t have had that opportunity to do so if it wasn’t for Polyphony so I am very grateful for that.

Community Music

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Music listening / Musical participation The impact of background music on behaviour and academic work (Hallam in press) Music listening and cognitive performance (Schellenberg, in press)

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Music

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Some challenges for qualitative research (Daykin in press; MacDonald et al, in press) A tendency to rely on face value reporting rather than interpretation of participants’ accounts of their experiences of arts projects. Tendency to report ‘outcomes’ using language and frameworks more appropriate for quantitative research.

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Unclear about the relationship between research and advocacy, leading to overstatement of the ‘benefits’ of arts

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In order to move on from the current state of arts and health research there is a need to develop appropriate conceptual frameworks that can account for the range of impacts of arts.

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Concepts such as empowerment and social inclusion are pertinent. These are often alluded to in project evaluations, and many claims are made for arts in respect of them. However, these concepts are seldom well elaborated or critically discussed in arts and health research. The relationship between outcome measures assessed by these various techniques and “music“ are complex and developing causal links is a key challenge for this area of study.

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Summary: •Why music •Musical Identities: Identities in Music & Music in Identities •Talking about music •Pluralistic models of music perception, identities and communication •Talking about Music: Discourse analysis •Signalling membership of musical communities •In groups and out groups •Improvisation & musical identity •Repertoires: mastery & mystery •Qualitative research and music health and wellbeing •music therapy sessions with cancer patients (IPA) •Researching the Arts in Scottish Education (RAISE) (Focus group) •Quantitative work Sounds of Progress / Limelight (Thematic analysis) •Polyphony Gartnavel Royal Hospital (Thematic analysis)

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